Educational Policy

*PLEASE EXCUSE FORMATTING ISSUES*

"What Counts As Educational Policy?" - Jean Anyon


"As education policymakers and practitioners, we can acknowledge and act on the power of urban poverty, low-wage work, and housing segregation to dwarf most curricular, pedagogical, and other educational reforms"  Is policy in education in place for the right reasons? Anyon tries to explain the barriers to educational policy.  Policy is put in place to "help" however often times in school, things turn south.  Specifically: teaching to the test.  In theory it is supposed to help students and schools make gains. In turn, we end up teaching to the test to improve scores and education ends up getting worse. Anyon suggest confrontation educational poverty head on by tackling poverty. Poverty appears to be the root of all evil. Poverty effects cognitive development, access to transportation and the development of communities as a whole.  I think that she raises a good point.  Personally I believe we can attack it locally but many of the problems that can be address across the United States stem from the federal and state levels.  

Anyon, J. (2005). What "Counts" as Educational Policy? Notes toward a New Paradigm. Harvard Educational Review,75(1), 65-88.

"The Full Cost Of Incarceration In The U.S." -Matt Ferner

We need to provide a welcoming community for students to make sure that we break a stigma of any sort of a racist society. When people leave the prison system they are more likely to create more crimes.  They face discrimination when applying to jobs.  They have a difficult time earning a job and having a successful life post-prison.  Seeing an adult or role model in prison, the child may be more likely to go to prison.  The forego a lot of educational opportunities because often times they need to fill the economic gap.  Family systems are disrupted. Affects the lives of children when it comes to education. "Operating all those federal and state prisons, plus running local jails, is generally said to cost the U.S. government about $80 billion a year." To think about the amount of money that goes into running facilitates for people who have committed crimes is quiet alarming.  Personally, I feel that since we are spending such a great amount of US dollars on incarceration, putting some program or using funding to conduct research as to stopping crimes as a whole would be more helpful long term.   The article states that the children of incarcerated people are five times more likely to go to prison than their peers.  In turn, the had long-term emotional and behavior challenges.  I have seen this within my own school district. The cost of incarceration is much more than a dollar amount.  It effects the lives of the families of friends and communities.  Looking for a solution to make a difference would be a better investment than using government funding to keep up facilities.


Ferner, M. (2016, September 13). The Full Cost Of Incarceration In The U.S. Is Over $1 Trillion, Study Finds. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mass-incarceration-cost_us_57d82d99e4b09d7a687fde21